TAUNTON — A citizen committee in Taunton dedicated to bringing a skate park to the community didn’t get the answers it wanted on Tuesday night, but members of the group said they are not giving up.

The group, which calls itself the Taunton Skate Park Committee, appeared before the Taunton City Council on Tuesday, requesting support for its effort to create a skate park in downtown Taunton.

The effort is a second try for the group after it failed to create a skate park three years ago, when it received grants to fund the project but was shot down by the city’s Historic District Commission. The Taunton Historic District rejected the skate park as inappropriate for its proposed location behind the downtown police station on Summer Street and Marian Manor. Now, the group said it is willing to raise upward of $350,000 to fund the project privately and is looking for any support from city leaders.

The City Council made a motion to refer the matter to the city’s Parks, Cemeteries and Public Grounds Commission, and to the Historic District Commission, to be addressed at their next meetings in the following two months.

“The City Council doesn’t have the authority to do it,” said City Councilor Deborah Carr. “It’s park land. Unless Historic District Commission approves it, they can’t put it there (downtown) either. Even if we were to giving them our OK, it doesn’t mean anything without other commissions approving it.”

Susan Barber, who fills the role of risk manager for the Taunton Legal Department, responded to inquiries from city leaders about the Skate Park Committee’s efforts to privately fund and construct the skate park. Barber said that, to limit the city’s liability for construction — not for recreational use of the park, which is covered by state law — it’d be best for the city to be in charge of the project from beginning to end.

“Obviously, we’d want to follow procurement laws and prevailing wage, to put it out to bid like any other project in the city,” Barber said.

Lee Ann Tavares, who has helped lead the Taunton Skate Park Committee, said that she and others were happy with Barber’s comments about liability and the city’s potential involvement.

But Tavares said that she and other supporters of the project were disappointed with suggestions that the proposed skate park be relocated to a different location outside of the original Mill River Park site behind Marian Manor and the Taunton Police Station. The group brought a letter from state’s Gateway City Parks Program showing that the state would not oppose a skate park joining another passive park constructed at the site a few years ago.

Page 2 of 2 - Tavares said that Taunton police Chief Edward Walsh, who was supportive, and others suggested sites like the Liberty and Union Plaza alleyway on Main Street.

“That’s still downtown, which is great, but it’s really small and there are two buildings on either side,” Tavares said. “I don’t know if the skateboards would be hitting those buildings and it would be annoying.”

Tavares said that Councilor Don Cleary, who was also very supportive, suggested Sikorski Field in East Taunton, but she said it wouldn’t be a good fit.

“It’s just too secluded,” she said.

Whatever direction the project might go, Tavares said she and the rest of the group just want what is best for the kids.

“We’re not giving up and we are looking for anyone interested in helping us when things get going and help get these kids a place,” she said.